Unveiled
by Izzu
Summary: He always wanted to know who she really was, but she never wanted to. Yet how should they go on once knowing the secrets under those masks?
1. Accident

Fixed the post. And dude, to whoever sending that anon comment... if the site screwing up any of my fic post, just tell me as it is. Don't suddenly curse out stuff like some ass without even mentioning what was the problem. I thought it was spam or smth.

* * *

She felt as if she was about to black out. And rightly so she should be. It was something she did not expect could happen; after all... she had been careful all these times. With all the luck she had, how could she neglect the possibility of something like this could happen? (Well, this outcome eventually would have _had_ to happen but she didn't expect it to turn out like this. With such a twist!) But suppose... even someone blessed with a lot of luck like her could have bad days once a while...

Yet, could she say that _this_ was a _bad_ thing?

"I don't know any more!" Marinette wailed as she threw herself on her bed.

To be fair, for all his faults and flaws... she didn't hate Chat. Despite everything, she _knows_ that he's not such a bad guy. Chat might have his own flaws... but that's not a bad thing. They did complement each other well and together they have been protecting Paris all these times.

In a sense, she _had_ considered him as a trusted ally... even though she couldn't allow it in herself to let him know of her true identity. And likewise for him... as much as she considered him as a close friend; she didn't want to know of _his_ real identity for fear that she might endanger him for that knowledge as much as hers would endanger those she cared about.

But how could this be?

How could Chat Noir... be _Adrien_?

xxx

It felt like a dream...

Adrien tried to pinch himself and winced as he felt pain. So it _wasn't_ a dream. Whoa.

To be honest, he did try to respect Ladybug's wish to keep their identities secret from each other. He understood that, and always abide to it no matter how much he wanted to know about her. But this time, as their Miraculous started giving off their last warning that their transformation would ran out soon... he _reacted_ without thinking.

Because he didn't want _her_ to get hurt.

Ladybug didn't seem to be alert when she slipped off the ledge suddenly, and he dove in to save her from the fall. Luckily, he managed to get themselves towards an empty alley before his transformation wore off. The landing was rough because of that but at least neither of them were badly hurt as they rolled over the slope.

He thought he could slip away before the dust cleared but then... he saw Marinette on top of him. Her face was full of shock, staring down at him... as he believed his own face would mirror the reaction. He could barely register everything that was happening before Marinette got up and hastily leave the area, taking her kwami with her.

But really... Marinette is Ladybug. All these times, the one he had longed for was always right _beside_ him.

To be frank, he used to entertain the thought that Marinette could be Ladybug... but decided that it couldn't be THAT obvious. Ladybug _could_ have intentionally changed her appearance in order to hide her identity. And while Marinette was the only girl with a dark hair tied in twintails in his class, he couldn't neglect the possibility that there could be other girls in Paris that would look similarly like her. And while Marinette's constant tardiness as well as disappearance during classes could be suspicious, it might just be that she really did encounter those accidents that made her late or even just waking up late like Alya often teased.

That should be one of the reasons that he didn't really—ahh! Or he's just dumb. He's so lovestruck with Ladybug that he couldn't imagine this super shy girl be the same person he fell in love to.

Regardless...

Marinette... didn't seem to be so bad. Though it was weird that she tend to be so jumpy whenever he's around. All his other female classmates had gotten used to him being in the same class but only Marinette—Come to think, a lot of his fans do occasionally acted so nervously whenever they saw him—wait, does that mean...?

"Marinette likes me? Was that why?" Adrien suddenly said out loud before recalling the look Marinette gave him when both of their transformation went off. "Oh god! Does that mean she would like me less now that she knows I'm Chat Noir? Oh No!" Adrien clutched his head in alarm.

"You're being ridiculous, you know?" said Plagg suddenly as Adrien threw a pillow at him.

xxx

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Tikki... what should I do?" moaned Marinette as she rolled around the bed.

Tikki let out a small chuckle before smiling. "But Marinette, isn't this good? You've been liking that boy Adrien for a long time and Chat had always said that he liked you as Ladybug. So since both of them are the same person, that should mean BOTH of you had liked each other after all these times! Isn't that the best thing that could happen?"

Marinette moaned even louder. "No! It's the worst! Now he knows that Ladybug was just this plain ol' me and not so great like Ladybug—Tikki! I've been pushing him away all these times, making fun of his stupid puns and throwing him around... Oh, NO TIKKI! I've even KISSED him on the lips yet I said all those things about not really wanting to do it if I had a choice... Aaaaaaa Tikki! How could I face him in class now? Aaaaaaa!"

Tikki blinked as she shrugged. "Well, perhaps things wouldn't end up so badly..." she tried to say as Marinette continued to wallow in despair.


	2. Alya

She thought it was strange. Really strange. Heck, it should be really obvious that something was up.

Marinette was acting strange.

She knew that her best friend liked their classmate, Adrien Agreste a lot that she wasn't able to function normally whenever she was in close proximity with that boy. She knew that Marinette often did silly things whenever it has to do with Adrien.

But...

As shy as Marinette could be, she never thought there would be the day Marinette would actually tried her hardest to _avoid_ any contact with Adrien. It puzzled her a lot. Especially since lately, Marinette had started to ease up whenever she interacted with Adrien. Well, Alya have to say all that was thanks to all her effort to grab the chance to get the two to actively spend time together more. And it did work.

So it just didn't sit well on her to see all that effort going to waste.

She started noticing this a few days ago when she saw Marinette hesitating to enter their class. She wondered if it was because Adrien already inside (that's silly though, since she should already have gotten over stuffs like that), but then Marinette never behaved like this before. Usually her best friend would be so giddy having to sit right behind Adrien in class... yet recently, it was as if Marinette _dreaded_ having her seat there. Marinette even tried to convince her to change their seating, but when asked what's bothering her... she refused to answer.

Even weirder when she saw Adrien trying to approach her during break and Marinette sped off right away, before any words could be said.

Adrien Agreste. That was also another thing that was weird.

Before, Adrien rarely approach Marinette unless it was related to their class projects... or whenever Nino drags him along to chat with them. _Or even during those times, she had sneakily arranged to get them both doing things together._ But lately... Adrien really seemed to try very hard to catch Marinette's attention despite how intensely she tried to avoid him. Truly an odd turn of events. Before, it was Marinette who was trying so hard to get Adrien to notice her but now... it was _Adrien_ who was doing the chasing.

 _Did something happen between them?_

She asked Nino about it, but he never heard anything. Whether or not Marinette and Adrien were _even_ fighting... no matter how unlikely for that to ever happen. How could the two even _have_ an argument when Marinette could barely form a proper sentence in front of Adrien?

It was certainly a mystery, but she couldn't even ask Marinette what was wrong...

xxx

"Err... Alya."

Alya looked up from her phone as Adrien stood before her awkwardly.

"Oh, Adrien? Hmm... are you looking for Marinette? She's just left for home."

The boy just nodded. "Yeah, I know. I saw you guys earlier but I couldn't catch up to you guys fast enough."

Alya grinned. "Hehe... you're not even denying it, eh? Did something happen between you two?"

Adrien let out a forced gasp. "What? What makes you think that? N-nothing... there's nothing happening between us. I just... want to talk to her. But she kept running off before I could get to her,"

She smiled. She caught the slight hesitation in his voice... and Adrien did look like he was hiding something.

"Don't deny it. I was watching the two of you these few days. Both of you were behaving strangely. Did you have a fight?"

Adrien's eyes widened before he started to sigh. _I knew it_ , she thought.

"Ah..." he coughed, "It's not... we don't really... well, I guess _something_ happened. We don't... actually _fight_ , you know... but just... stuff. It's complicated," the boy sighed as Alya nodded.

"I guess... it _is_ complicated. We're talking about Marinette after all. Especially whenever _you_ were involved. I should have known..."

" _You have no idea how complicated_ —" Adrien muttered under his breath before stopping himself, "—wait, what did you mean... whenever _I_ am involved?"

Alya gave him a look of disbelief. "Surely you should be aware that she likes you. I mean... come on, you can't be as dense. After all those times I've set the two of you—" Alya paused as she noticed the look of surprise on Adrien's face. She slapped her palm on her face.

"Yo... what are you guys doing here?" Suddenly Nino popped up as Alya clung to his arm.

"I really can't believe these two. I swear they'll be the death of me!" she exclaimed loudly.


	3. Ambush

I'm making this up as we go along, okay? Though to be honest, I do have some set things in mind on what to write on. But yeah, can't promise update would be fast cos I also have other projects to do.

Thanks for the support.

* * *

Adrien bowed to his driver as the large man reluctantly drove away. Once the car was out of sight, he ran back towards the spot where Alya and Nino were waiting.

"Settled everything?" Nino asked as Adrien shrugged.

"Sort of. I told him that I'm going to your place to do some group work. And I haven't had anything else on the schedule today, so it shouldn't interfere with anything. He's kinda bummed that I wouldn't let him wait for me... but that's that."

Nino eyed him carefully. "That's all? You're sure you won't get into trouble later?" Alya stared at Nino warily for worrying too much as Adrien shrugged.

"I'll worry about that later... so what's the plan?"

Alya immediately grinned. "Well, what else? We're going to Marinette's house to visit her."

"WHAT?!" exclaimed Adrien, red-faced as Alya and Nino both laughed at him...

xxx

Adrien frantically glanced all around him as the three started walking on the route towards Marinette's family's bakery.

"A-Alya! Would it really be okay if we just _come over_? I mean..."

"It'll be fine. I ALWAYS come over to their place regardless what time it was!" exclaimed Alya as Nino elbowed him playfully.

"Are you chickening out? Adrien... I never thought you'd be such a wuss for things like this..."

"I'M NOT!" Adrien cried out before blushing again. "I-I just... I mean... Alya aside, wouldn't it be strange if WE just happened to come by? I mean... _girl_ friends aside, wouldn't her parents object if some _boy_ fr—"

" ** _Boyfriend_**?" Alya perked immediately. "You're already calling yourself Marinette's boyfriend, Adrien?"

"DON'T TWIST MY WORDS! AAAAAAAH!" Adrien cried as he covered his face with his hands. Nino laughed.

Alya waved the concerns away. "Don't worry about it... plus, they've heard a lot about you they'd be _thrilled_ to _finally_ meet you. And I wanted to settle this problem as soon as possible. It's hard for me to watch the two of you continuing... whatever you two were doing right now, and I want my old Marinette back. It's hard for me to _even_ talk to her casually... I can't even talk about Ladybug with her now!"

Adrien immediately turned his head at her direction. "Eh? Why not?" Adrien asked as Alya shrugged.

"I don't know. She usually went along with me whenever I had random musings about them. But now she's like... I can't even say anything. Especially over Chat Noir!"

Adrien couldn't help wincing to that. Luckily for him, Alya and Nino hadn't noticed it. "Chat—? What's wrong abou—?"

"You probably talked about it too much that she got tired of it. Your head's after all too full of those two superheroes after all..." Nino started to say as Alya cut in.

"But it was a legit concern! And since Chat once helped Marinette out I thought she would _actually_ be concerned. I mean... it can't just be me who noticed that Chat and Ladybug were acting a bit too awkward lately. I mean they're _partners_ after all!"

"Was it... THAT obvious?" Adrien asked cautiously as Alya nodded a bit too forcefully.

"Indeed!" Alya exclaimed, before eyeing Adrien carefully. "That reminds me... how come both you and Marinette suddenly having some issues almost the same time as both Ladybug and Chat Noir did?"

Adrien started to laugh nervously. "Haha... err, coincidence?"

Alya kept watching him closely before letting it go, "Hmm... I guess it could be." She turned around and smiled as she saw the bakery in her line of sight.

xxx

 _"Aunty, is Marinette back already?"_

"Sure, she's upstairs in her room..."

"Thanks..."

Alya led them towards the second floor as Adrien and Nino glanced around. "Wow..." Adrien gasped. "So Marinette lives in this kind of home..."

Nino chuckled. "Well, compared to yours... this is quite small,"

"But it's full of _warmth_..." said Adrien in a daze as Alya gestured towards him while climbing up a stairway toward the attic entrance.

She opened the attic door before sticking her head in.

"Marinette, are you awake?"

Adrien could hear a faint reply as Alya glanced back down and urged him to climb up. He started to hesitate before Nino gave him a push and he slowly climb up the stairs as Alya slowly start to come down. As he reached the door, suddenly Alya gave him a HARD shove and closed the attic door behind him!

xxx

"AaaaAAAAAAaaAAAAAHHHH!"

Alya giggled as she carefully climbed down the stairs, still shaking. She grinned as her eyes met Nino's.

"Now we wait."

Nino would have commented on her earlier actions but then they were greeted by even more shrieks and screams from upstairs. They immediately broke into laughter.

"ALYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"


	4. Alarm

For a moment, he thought he was Chat Noir instead. He was not sure what Alya did (because who could imagined she had this sudden burst of strength to shove him off or he was just lightweight) but he ended up sprawled against the wall, upside down. He was just about to get a grip on what was happening before a very loud shriek greeted him.

"AaaAAaAAaaaaAAAAAH!"

Adrien blinked as the scene in front of him came to focus. He could see a a long desk... and a large couch, no... a chaise lounge? In front of him. And Marinette... was sitting on the chaise, pointing a hand towards him with mouth agape. He slowly tried to get himself into the upright position (because his current position was a tad _too_ embarrassing) as Marinette screamed again.

"Wha?" He started to ask as she screamed again the moment he was about to turn his head around.

"DON'T MOVE!"

He froze. "Marinette, I..."

"HOW?!"

Adrien shrugged. "I wanted to properly talk to you... about you know... _last time_. I mean, we didn't really... but then Alya suddenly..." he stuttered as Marinette shrieked.

"ALYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Adrien flinched before looking back at Marinette, who has now jumped off and hiding behind the chaise. He couldn't help letting out a long sigh.

"Pretty loud... isn't she?" Plagg finally came out from his shirt pocket as Adrien hastily hushed him.

"Got it all out of your system already... Marinette?" Another soft voice broke the tension as Adrien looked up and saw a small ladybug-looking creature appearing out of a hidden corner to check on Marinette. The small creature turned towards Adrien. "Hehe..." she chuckled. "Startled you, huh?"

Adrien couldn't help smiling at that. "I guess." He sighed. "I suppose... but then, me being here... is also sudden, huh?"

The red kwami chuckled again. "Well... I told her that there's no use running away. That one way or another you guys do inevitably _have_ to confront each other." She jumped off the chaise to properly greet Adrien.

"I'm Tikki, as you would've figured by now... is Ladyb—I mean, Marinette's kwami. And I see Plagg still being the same as when I last saw him."

Plagg snapped at her as Adrien smiled at the little kwami. "Hi, Tikki..." he started to say before looking back towards the chaise in concern. Sighing again, Adrien gathered his strength to stand on his feet before gasping aloud.

Alerted by the sudden noise, Marinette looked up and cried in alarm as she saw Adrien looking at the direction of her desk aka workplace. Or more specifically, at the _wall_ behind it.

"AaaaaaaaaAAAAH NOOOOOO!" In a blink of an eye, Marinette jumped out... and placed herself in between Adrien and the wall. "D-D-D-DON'T LOOK!"

Adrien could feel the heat swelling on his cheeks as he could see how Marinette was equally flustered. After all, there was quite a sum of his pictures being placed on the wall in some kind of a collage. And the computer beside it, just happened to have been turned on to reveal a desktop background that _just_ happened to be...

"Heh... and I thought Adrien had it bad," quipped Plagg as Adrien glared at him. He shrugged at Marinette.

"Not bad. That's some pretty good pictures of me, I recognized some of the fan photos but the few others? Did you—"

"I S-S-S-SAID DON'T LOOK!"

Before Adrien could finish, Marinette suddenly lunged towards him without warning. The next second, he found himself lying on the floor again and Marinette's on top of him. Again. Marinette gave a loud cry before sitting up again.

"WAIT!" Adrien immediately grabbed Marinette's arm before she could run away again. He sighed, for who knows how many times already. "Please..."

xxx

"It's not THAT bad..." Adrien started to say before glancing towards the picture collage Marinette had made on the wall. "You should see my Ladybug picture collections. I had plenty in my room."

He turned to look at Marinette again as she struggled to free herself from his grasp.

"You've been avoiding me since that incident. I know... it must be a shock. But Marinette... we can't keep avoiding each other like this." Adrien tried again to get Marinette to respond to him but she remained silent.

Somehow, it made his heart clenched.

"Did you... _hate_ Chat Noir that much?"

* * *

Firstly, had to put this note. Having this unexpected response kinda blew me a bit. Also, writing this chapter is HARD. Hopefully I don't disappoint you guys. I'll try my best in writing the next chapters to the best of my abilities. Thank you.


	5. Admission

_"Did you... **hate** Chat Noir that much?" _

Marinette stopped herself as her world started to spin. Hate? Chat...? No...!

She turned her head and then was greeted by the most hurtful expression she ever saw on Adrien's face.

"Adri—that... I... Chat... no!" Marinette tried to explain but her thoughts didn't seem to want to cooperate with her voice. She wanted to explain that no... she didn't hate Chat; she didn't hate the fact that he was Chat, she's just—

"Ah no... Marinette didn't—" Tikki tried to explain as Marinette glanced hopefully at the little kwami. But Adrien still looked very hurt and her brains and mouth refused to cooperate properly. She could only utter nonsense babble and none of her words made sense!

 _Ah! Why can't I just say what I want!_ , thought Marinette desperately. She could always speak so eloquently as Ladybug and she could always talk casually to Chat. But why can't she do the same as herself and to Adrien...!

Marinette gasped as she came to a realization. _If I could picture myself talking to Chat instead, I could probably...!_ Marinette turned to look at Adrien and shook her head. _Ah no, I just... can't!_

 _But if I don't clear this matter up, Adrien will continue to misunderstand..._

"I-It's... not... like that!"

xxx

Adrien looked up and back towards Marinette as he saw her facing him, eyes closed.

"I-It's not... like that!" she repeated the words as Adrien stared at her, puzzled. He didn't even notice Tikki dragging Plagg away to leave the two of them alone.

Marinette started crying.

"I don't know why... whenever I tried to talk to you, I can't seem... to always say what I want. I get so nervous... I can't even think straight! When I found out that you are... Chat... I... I thought back of all the times we worked together to protect Paris."

Adrien held his breath without thinking as he waited for Marinette to finish talking.

"I thought about how many times you put yourself in danger because of me. I thought about the many times that Chat— _you_... flirted with me and how I always pushed you away. I thought about that... and I can't stop thinking how I must have hurt your feeling all these times! And then I thought that now you've also found out I'm Ladybug you... you won't like me any more..." said Marinette as she cried even more.

Adrien gasped in surprise. He cocked his head. Marinette started wrapping her arms around her knees as she sobbed.

"Because now you know that Ladybug is me... and I'm... just me. Just a plain and super shy me who can't even tell the person that she had a crush on that she likes him a lot. Not someone cool and confident like Ladybug."

Adrien grinned. He slowly crawled to her side.

"Marinette. Marinette, _look_ at me."

Marinette lifted her head and stared at him blankly.

He chuckled. "Didn't you confessed that _mew_ liked me just now? And who said you are plain? _Mew_ had a talent in design and you've been a great and reliable class president. To top it, you've always been a kind and great friend! Why do you think I won't like _mew_?"

Marinette continued to blink at him as Adrien kept changing the way he speak to Chat speak and back. Adrien kept grinning.

"What? _Chat_ got your tongue?" he teased as that caught her attention.

Finally, after a long silence... Marinette started to smile.

"Damn you and your stupid puns!" she started to say before wrapping her arms around his neck.

"But _mew_ like it... rrrriiiiiiiiight?" he drawled as Marinette slapped him on the back.

* * *

This is damn hard. I tell ya, I'm not really _that_ good at writing romance, okay?

That aside, if possible I prefer no one to comment using the review option about wanting updates soon or wanting to read more of it. Like I KNOW if people like what I write then they'd be looking forward for more. But I rather not receive anything if the only comment you have is JUST that. Because any similar 'update pls' comments just sressed me out.

Also, for the week there would be no updates since I needed to concentrate on cosplay stuff/local con stuff.


	6. Abrupt

Ahahahaha... that hiatus ended up to be too long. Well, sorry for the wait. First off, there's that one week break before con thing... and then there's the post con week break thing since I needed to recover my strength. And then I get distracted with other fandom, star wars... as well as trying to figure out what I'm suppose to do for the next chapter.

That aside, thank you for your patience.

* * *

Marinette abruptly let go as she glanced back towards Adrien. "Ah! I'm sorry. What am I doing.. I—"

Adrien chuckled. "Well, I guess we've just confessed to each other. I mean... I thought it would be much _harder_ to—"

Marinette immediately stopped him, placing a finger over his lips. "W-wait... let me think about this for a moment," she started to say as Marinette clutched her head. "Oh my god... how complicated can things _be_ now?"

Adrien stared at her, puzzled. "What did you mean... complicated?"

Marinette glared at him before started waving her arms around.

"You... Chat Noir! Me... La—" Immediately afterwards, she recalled that she heard Alya's voice earlier. The one that triggered this whole situation. The one who _also_... had a blog dedicated to everything Ladybug.

Adrien gave a shrugging glance towards the trapdoor before Marinette hissed at him, and hastily dragging him away...

xxx

Meanwhile, downstairs...

Sabine was looking at them curiously as Alya and Nino tried showing her their best smiles.

"That's what I was saying earlier... Aunty, there's nothing to be concerned about!" Alya explained as Sabine didn't look too convinced.

"But didn't I hear some screamings earlier—and where's that _other boy_ that came with the two of you..."

Alya laughed nervously. Well, they _did_ caused a lot of noise earlier. Particularly Marinette. Courtesy of yours truly. "He was upstairs. It just happened that we had some surprise present to give to Marinette and knowing her... Well, she did have a very _strong_ reaction."

Sabine stared at them curiously as Nino cut in.

"Oh yes, that's what happened!" Nino added. "Lately Marinette seemed troubled, so we thought of cheering her up today!" Well, that _was_ partially the truth any way.

The older lady glanced up towards the staircase leading to the floors upstairs before sighing. "Well, she did seemed a bit down lately..."

Alya immediately took that chance to steer Sabine back towards the bakery. "So like I said, don't worry about it. We'll take care of everything."

xxx

" _...We'll take care of everything._ "

Alya was silent for a while after the two of them went back upstairs. Reason for that would be... because it got _too_ quiet now. Of course, Alya knew... that all those screams and exaggerated reactions from earlier shouldn't last too long. Even by Marinette's standard.

 _But by now, **both** of them should have started to come down from the attic... shouldn't they?_

"A-Alya? What's wrong?" Nino started to say as Alya started to climb the stairway leading to Marinette's attic room.

Alya glanced down towards Nino as she pushed open the attic door. "It's too quiet..." she started to say, before slamming the door down in surprise. "Hey! Where _are_ those two?" she exclaimed as she climbed into the small room. Nino followed her from behind as Alya glanced up towards the upper balcony area where Marinette's bed should be located. She frowned before gasping at the sight that greeted her.

Nino turned towards the direction she was looking as Alya smirked. She could see a glimpse of Marinette and Adrien at the upper balcony, from the window on top of Marinette's bed.

Alya started to laugh. "Heh... and to think she had been too scared to confront Adrien these few days..."

xxx

Marinette stopped pacing around as she finally turned back towards Adrien, blushing again as she recalled how close both of them have been earlier. Shaking her head, she finally steeled herself for what's to come.

"Umm... what should we do now?"


End file.
